Afro-Atlantic Currents in in Brazilian and French Artistic Traditions
Brazil is essentially a land of miscegenation and artistic synthesis. Since its formation, it has always been a land of migration, absorbing influences from different parts of the world and transforming them into something unique. This cultural melting pot has shaped its artistic identity, intertwining European, African and indigenous traditions.
During Baroque period (17th century to the first decades of the 18th century), artistic production was strongly linked to manual labor, and Brazilian artists were mostly of African descent or mixed race. As the colony’s white population was numerically smaller and focused on administrative and commercial functions, artistic crafts were carried out by artisans and sculptors of African origin, many of whom were enslaved or freed. These artists, often without individual recognition, were responsible for carving, painting and decorating churches and buildings that marked the Brazilian Baroque aesthetic.
One of the most emblematic examples of this cultural fusion in Brazil is Antônio Francisco Lisboa, known as Aleijadinho. The son of a Black woman and a Portuguese man, Aleijadinho overcame social prejudice to become a powerful symbol of Afro-descendant contribution to Brazilian art. His sculptures and architectural works, expressive, dramatic, and profoundly spiritual, reveal how European Baroque forms were transformed through African sensibilities, giving rise to a uniquely Brazilian Baroque.
Another striking example of this cultural fusion is Mestre Valentim, an Afro-descendant artist active in the 18th century. Renowned for his talent as a sculptor and urban planner, he was responsible for important works in Rio de Janeiro, such as the Passeio Público, Brazil’s first urban park. In this space, he combined elements of European rococo with inventive solutions, adapted to the tropical reality and local tastes, reflecting his own artistic sensibility, forged at the intersection of cultures.
Like Aleijadinho, his production reinforces the idea that Brazilian art was born from the confluence of diverse influences, being deeply marked by the black contribution, not only in the execution, but also in the aesthetic and symbolic conception of the works.
In parallel, France’s engagement with Africa during the colonial period, although shaped by distinct historical dynamics, gave rise to a subtle yet impactful hybridization in the arts. Often overlooked, African influences entered French Baroque through ornamental motifs, material culture, and the increasing presence of Black figures and aesthetics in court art and decorative traditions.
At the Manufacture des Gobelins in Paris, for example, the production of a series of tapestries commissioned to adorn royal residences reflected a growing fascination with non-European subjects and styles. More than mere decorative objects, these works captured aspects of the colonial world and played an active role in constructing an imperial visual language. They became part of the official iconography of European overseas expansion, subtly reinforcing colonial ideologies
This cultural entanglement was further amplified by the Catholic conversion of certain African colonies and the presence of early French settlements in Brazil during the 16th and 17th centuries. These historical threads created a channel through which exotic imaginaries circulated, eventually reaching Brazil, where they intertwined with local anthropological and aesthetic foundations to shape a singular visual language.
The result was a métissage that not only enriched regional artistic traditions but also sowed the seeds for future modernisms, rooted in plurality, resistance, and reinvention.
The French Artistic Mission: Foundations of Academic Art in Brazil
However, the relationship between the two countries goes back centuries, more precisely to March 26, 1816, when a group of French artists landed in Rio de Janeiro. Among them, the painters Jean-Baptiste Debret and Nicolas-Antoine Taunay, Johann Moritz Rugendas and Victor Frond under the leadership of Joachim Lebreton, arrived with the mission of supplying the colony with “good art”.
The invitation came from the Count of Barca, minister to Dom João VI, who was looking to modernize local artistic production after the arrival of the Court in Brazil in 1808. Inspired by the French academic model and the neoclassical tradition, the French Mission aimed to structure the teaching of the arts in the country.
Until then, Brazilian art was mostly religious, centered on the decoration of churches and convents. With the arrival of the Royal Family in Rio de Janeiro, there was a demand for portraits, palace ornaments and records of the territory, driving a new cultural phase in line with European standards.
Eliseu Visconti, Jardim do Luxemburgo, 1905, oil on canvas, 50 x 60 cm
Even before embarking for Brazil, Lebreton gathered a collection of works by European artists, bringing with him a collection of great value. In a country where photography was still non-existent, these paintings played an essential role in recording everyday life, political events and historical moments. Thus, the French mission not only formed the basis of academic art education in Brazil, but also ensured that the events of the time were documented by some of the most renowned French artists.
The group selected by Lebreton played a fundamental role in spreading French neoclassicism and romanticism in Brazil, styles that at the time were associated with sophistication. Ten years after their arrival, the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts was founded, which became a reference in the training of Brazilian artists such as Victor Meirelles, Pedro Américo and Eliseu Visconti.
Academic art remained dominant throughout the 18th century until the end of the 19th century, when the first outdoor painting movements emerged in France. This new approach paved the way for the first European avant-gardes, while in parallel, Brazil witnessed the birth of modern painting, later consolidated with the Modern Art Week of 1922.
Modernism, Paris, and the Rise of a Brazilian Identity
The artistic effervescence of this period was one of the factors that motivated many Brazilian artists to leave for Paris in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Although France left its mark on Brazilian art through its academic teaching, it also contributed to its dissemination in Europe. As early as the 1920s, Brazilian artists such as Alberto da Veiga Guignard, Annita Malfatti, Vicente de Rego Monteiro, Victor Brecheret and Waldemar Cordeiro were exhibiting at the Salons d’Automne and des Indépendants in Paris, asserting their presence on the international art scene.
The impact of the French avant-garde on Brazilian modernism is undeniable. After her stay in France, Tarsila do Amaral fused the principles of Cubism and Surrealism with Brazilian references, following her studies in Fernand Leger’s studio.
Cândido Portinari is another artist that represents this cultural connection. Although he didn’t live in France, his style was influenced by European murals and the French avant-garde. His work incorporates references to European social realism with a unique Brazilian touch.
When they returned to Brazil, these artists brought with them new influences and a strong desire to break with traditional academicism. This transformative impulse gained strength after the Modern Art Week of 1922, an event that redefined artistic concepts in the country. From then on, Brazilian artistic production began to explore new languages, materials and techniques, breaking with established traditions and paving the way for the construction of a modernist identity of its own.
Art Deco Bridges: From Paris to São Paulo
While modernism was gaining momentum in Brazil, the Art Deco movement was consolidating itself in Paris, especially with the Exposition Universelle des Arts Décoratifs of 1925. With an aesthetic that combined elegance and functionality, its influence spread to various areas, including architecture, interior design, visual arts and painting. In Brazil, Art Deco arrived in the 1920s, initially through architecture, and later spread to other artistic expressions.
Among the artists who incorporated this aesthetic was John Graz, a Swiss architect and designer who settled in Brazil from the 1920s onwards. He took part in a number of architectural projects in which he incorporated this new trend, as well as making a significant contribution to the development of the aesthetic.
An important figure in the consolidation of Art Deco in Brazil was the Italian sculptor Victor Brecheret, one of the founders of the Sociedade Pró-Arte Moderna. His production in the 1930s sums up the influence of this movement, especially in sculpture. The Venice Biennale itself recognized this dialogue between the Italian diaspora and Art Deco, highlighting his work Virgin and child. This sculpture incorporates minimalist and geometric lines, typical of the movement, while preserving a subtle elegance in the representation of this icon of sacred art.
Another influential presence in the consolidation of the Art Deco aesthetic in Brazil was Vicente do Rego Monteiro, whose work engaged with the movement from a distinct perspective: the incorporation of elements from Indigenous Brazilian culture.
Rego Monteiro explored the vocabulary of Art Deco with tropical intensity, fusing traces of Marajoara ceramics with the geometric shapes and metallic sparkles of the style. His stylized bodies, both human and animal, oscillate between the ancestral and the futuristic, revealing an original synthesis between European avant-garde and indigenous Brazilian tradition.
Thus, Art Deco in Brazil not only absorbed French and Italian influences, but also adapted to the local context, becoming an important link between European tradition and emerging Brazilian modernity.
A unique opportunity to explore the relationship between the Art Deco period, its correspondence in Brazil and Brazilian modernity will take place during the ABERTO exhibition at Le Corbusier’s Villa La Roche in Paris, from May 15 to June 15, 2025. Conceived by Filipe Assis, Claudia Moreira Salles and Kiki Mazzucchelli, the project establishes dialogues between art and architecture, weaving new narratives that connect these historical influences in an innovative way.
Even though Villa La Roche was completed in 1925 — the same year as the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes in Paris — it stands as a manifesto of minimalist and modernist architecture. Its geometric rigor and stripped-down aesthetic stand in stark contrast to the decorative exuberance of 1920s Art Deco, yet offer an ideal setting for the display of Concrete and Neo-Concrete Brazilian artworks.
Inside view of the Villa La Roche
This constant exchange of influences between Brazil and France, recurring in different historical periods, not only enriched both aesthetics, but also played a fundamental role in the construction of an identity of its own, as widely claimed both in the Anthropophagic Manifesto and, in the 1950s, in the concept of Our North is the South. The latter proposed an inversion of the traditional geopolitical and cultural hierarchy, repositioning the South as the center of creation and thought, allowing a break with the Eurocentric vision of art and culture and claiming an autonomous identity for Latin America.
The São Paulo Biennale, held since 1951 and inspired by the Venice Biennale, consolidated the city as an important center for international art. The event attracted renowned French artists such as Henri Matisse, Georges Braque, André Masson and Fernand Léger, promoting significant artistic exchanges.
Concrete Dialogues: From Van Doesburg to the São Paulo Biennale
Max Bill’s arrival at the 1st São Paulo Biennial in 1951, with his sculpture Tripartite Unit, 1948, was decisive in boosting the concretist movement in Brazil. However, although he is the most recognized name, other French artists also exerted a fundamental influence, such as Theo van Doesburg and Auguste Herbin.
Van Doesburg, founder of the De Stijl movement, theorized “Art Concret” in 1930, laying the foundations for concretism, while Herbin developed an innovative geometric and chromatic system, anticipating principles adopted by the Brazilian concretists. Although Herbin never visited Brazil, his influence occurred indirectly, mainly through the dissemination of his ideas and works in Europe, where Brazilian artists in training had contact with his geometric approach and color system. This artistic exchange demonstrates the constant dialog between Brazilian production and the European avant-garde.
By 1952, Brazil was ready to absorb this abstract avant-garde. In São Paulo, the Ruptura Group, led by Waldemar Cordeiro and Geraldo de Barros, consolidated concrete art. Two years later, in Rio de Janeiro, Ivan Serpa founded the Frente Group, bringing together artists such as Lygia Clark, Hélio Oiticica and Lygia Pape, who expanded the possibilities of concretism.
Thus, although Max Bill was a catalyst, Brazilian concretism developed within a broader context, rooted in the structural and chromatic principles of Van Doesburg and Herbin, consolidating Brazil as an essential pole of concrete art outside Europe.
This dynamic exchange between Brazil and Europe was not limited to theoretical or stylistic influences. It also unfolded through concrete opportunities for visibility and circulation of Brazilian art abroad. Well before the 1951 Biennial, Brazilian artists had already established connections with the French art scene. Academic painters such as Victor Meirelles, Pedro Américo, and Eliseu Visconti exhibited at the Paris Salon, while modernists like Anita Malfatti, Tarsila do Amaral, Vicente do Rego Monteiro, Cícero Dias, and Candido Portinari deepened this presence in the early 20th century, engaging directly with European avant-gardes.
By the 1950s and 60s, these ties deepened with the growing international interest in concrete and kinetic art. Parisian galleries—particularly Galerie Denise René—played a key role in introducing Brazilian artists aligned with these movements to European audiences. A landmark example was the 1964 exhibition Mouvement 2, which featured works by Lygia Clark, Sérgio Camargo, and other international figures engaged with ideas of movement and perception. Far from being mere followers of European trends, these artists affirmed Brazil’s place as a vital force within the global concretist dialogue.
The Contemporary Stage: Brazilian Artists in France Today
For the France-Brazil Year 2025, this dynamic of exchange is gaining even more momentum, with contemporary Brazilian artists taking their works to Paris, reinforcing Brazil as an avant-garde territory. We have listed here several events and in this link you will find their full description.
February 2025
Sebastião Salgado: Exhibition at Les Franciscaines, Deauville (February to May). It shows 75 iconic photos, addressing the relationship between humanity and nature, focusing on environmental and social challenges.
Val Souza: Venus exhibition at the Nantes History Museum (February to May). Part of the “Humans First” event, it celebrates the beauty and historical strength of black women.
Brazil at Home: Cultural and academic programming at the Maison du Brésil (February to September), exploring themes such as ecological transition, diversity, dialogue with Africa, democracy and fair globalization.
March 2025
Frans Krajcberg: Exhibition at Espace Krajcberg, Paris (March to August). Highlights the four elements of nature through his works and those of contemporary artists.
José Antônio da Silva: Exhibition at the Musée de Grenoble (March to June). Features 40 paintings by the “Brazilian Van Gogh,” addressing rural reality and environmental destruction.
April 2025
Lucas Arruda: Exhibition at the Musée d’Orsay (April to July). Addresses the relationship between tradition and contemporaneity through abstract landscapes.
Amazons: Exhibition at the Musée des Confluences, Lyon (April to July). Focuses on the cultural richness and struggles of the indigenous peoples of the Amazon.
Le Brésil illustré: The exhibition brings together 15 contemporary Brazilian artists who engage critically with Jean-Baptiste Debret’s legacy, reassessing the colonial past. Inspired by Leenhardt’s research, it proposes new forms of representation and historical narrative.
Ivens Machado:The artist’s first institutional show in France takes place at Carré d’Art – Nîmes (April to October), curated by Jean-Marc Prévost. The exhibition brings together performances from the 1970s and sculptures using raw materials, highlighting the body, sensuality and political criticism.
Marina Rheingantz: Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nîmes (April and October) presents Mirage, with seven large-format paintings by Marina Rheingantz. Curated by Barbara Gouget, the show explores evocative landscapes marked by instinctive gestures and topographical dissolution.
May 2025
Femme Jibóia: Exhibition by artist Kássia Borges Mytara, at the Marché Dauphine, Saint-Ouen (May to July). Her first solo exhibition in Europe, translating the spiritual visions of the Huni Kuin people.
International Cello Festival: Festival in Beauvais (May 22-23) with the participation of cellist Gustavo Tavares and a program dedicated to Brazilian music.
Brazil at Home: Festival Brazil Meets the University (February to June) at the Maison du Brésil.
Marché du Film: Brazil is the Country of Honor at the 78th Cannes Film Festival (May 13-21), with film screenings, co-productions and networking events.
June 2025
Lucas Arruda: Desert-Model exhibition at the Carré d’Art, Nîmes (June to September). Retrospective with new works exploring landscapes and perception.
Sonia Gomes: Exhibition at Louvre Lens (June to September), featuring textile sculptures made from recycled materials.
Leopoldo Martins: Insects exhibition at the Ricardo Fernandes Gallery, Saint-Ouen (June to August). Sculptures inspired by the shape and complexity of insects.
Anna Maria Maiolino: Exhibition at the Musée National Picasso, Paris (June to September), addressing social and political issues through poetic language.
Casa do Povo: Programming in Brazil and France, (May to November) including festivals and collaborative workshops in Paris and Metz.
Carlos Vergara: The brasilian artist will be hosted by the Château Cos d’Estournel winery for an artist’s residency. Known for his work with natural materials and monotypes, he will create works inspired by the terroir and architecture of the site.
Ernesto Neto: Tambor Barco Terra exhibition at the Grand Palais, Paris (June to July). Sensory installation about the spiritual journey and vital energy of the Earth.
July 2025
Samba Schools Parade: Parade of samba schools on the Champs-Élysées, Paris, celebrating Brazilian culture. July 6th.
Sonia Gomes: Exhibition at the Louvre Lens continues (June to January 2026).
Tadáskía: The artist presents new works and a site specific wall drawing created especially for the Musée d’Art Contemporain de la Haute Vienne – Château de Rochechouart (July – August), interacting with the thirteenth-century castle’s architecture.
August 2025
Frans Krajcberg: Water and Earth exhibition (March to May), followed by Fire and Air (May to August), at Espace Krajcberg, Paris.
Leopoldo Martins: Insects exhibition continues at Galeria Ricardo Fernandes (June to July).
September 2025
Galerie Natalie Seroussi: Exhibition co-curated by Sophie Su Art Advisory, (opening on September 18), exploring the ancestral spirituality and diversity of Brazil.
Grand Bal Rio-Paris: Event at the Grand Palais (September), celebrating Brazilian culture with parades, performances and DJ sets.
Journées du Patrimoine: Exhibition at the Villa de André Bloc in Meudon (September 20-21), including a Roda de Samba performance celebrating Afro-Brazilian music.
These exhibitions reaffirm Brazil as a territory of artistic reinvention, where global influences are re-signified and returned to the world in new forms. If in the past Brazil absorbed and recreated the traditions that came to its land, today it exports its unique aesthetic, consolidating itself as one of the world’s great centers of contemporary art.